Our core purpose is..
..to provide homes and opportunities to support people to build a better life.
About us: intro
Who we are:
Bolton at Home is a registered provider and charitable Community Benefit Society. Our stock totals around 19,000 properties. As well as providing homes, we offer a range of other services. These are available to our tenants, and some are open to other residents living in our communities.
We have four subsidiary companies (links open in a new tab):
- R-haus (www.r-haus.org),
- Starts with you (www.startswithyou.org.uk),
- Maxmedia Communications (www.max-mediagroup.co.uk),
- and Stonecross Homes (www.boltonathome.org.uk/shared-ownership).
Our structure:
Our values (scroll to see all four of them):
We act with..
good intentions
..to benefit our customers, communities, and the environment.
We are..
good communicators
..we keep it simple, speak openly, honestly, and with accountability.
We are..
good listeners
..we value all voices and ideas.
We are..
good together
..we team up to find new ways of working, learning, and improving.
Our objectives (scroll to see all four of them):
1. To provide safe and secure homes.
We need to respond to the changing needs of our customers. This means changing the type of housing we offer and updating our services.
2. Supporting our customers and communities.
At any one time, we provide targeted support to over 2,000 customers.
3. To continue to be well-run, responsible and financially secure.
Strong governance is essential for the Group so that we are assured of being well-managed, financially viable and providing value for money.
4. To promote an inclusive, diverse culture where everyone is accountable and respected.
Our aim is for our colleagues to feel motivated and engaged with the purpose and values of Bolton at Home so that they can deliver on our objectives.
About us: Our Journey Ahead (Business Plan)
Our Journey Ahead (business plan), annual report, and how we're performing:
We have a five-year business plan (40-year financial plan) and update it each year to take into account our changing environment, and we also report on our progress through our annual report. You can read our business plan or our annual report by tapping here.
You can also see the latest stats and information on how we're performing by tapping here.
In this short video, our Group CEO, Noel Sharpe, summarises our future plans and what you can expect from us as your landlord in the coming years:
About us: more about us
More about us:
We own, manage, and maintain more than 18,000 homes across the borough. We invest to improve the quality of our properties for tenants and are building new homes to give as many people as we can the opportunity to live in a quality, affordable home.
Our work goes far beyond bricks and mortar. We tackle poverty with debt and money advice. We provide food and clothes initiatives and help people keep warm for less. We support tenants and residents into training and employment, and deal with antisocial behaviour.
We help customers to remain independent in their own homes with a community alarm service and adaptations. And we work with volunteer groups to build sustainable communities.
We are a charitable community benefit society that works to make people’s lives better by providing quality housing, giving people opportunities to prosper, and helping customers to maximise their income. To achieve this, we work in partnership with a variety of local charities, social enterprises, and other agencies.
We also work to make a lasting difference to lives across the city region, as one of the 24 Greater Manchester Housing Providers working in partnership to achieve more together. And we have created subsidiaries within our Bolton at Home group structure to acquire more properties, deliver contracts and training opportunities, and provide the means to invest more in communities and neighbourhoods.
We know that successful community regeneration requires more than developing and managing homes, it needs a commitment to help people become more socially and economically active.
Between April 2023 and March 2024, we supported 2,500 households with money advice and helped people to achieve financial gains amounting to £12.8 million. Our employment related programmes helped over 250 people into paid work and more into training. And we supported 181 local groups and organisations.
Also, we provide direct financial support to voluntary, community and social enterprise partners within Bolton. We provide housing and personal support to people who are vulnerable, at risk of homelessness, and survivors of domestic abuse and violence. We run community projects to develop people’s skills, health, and confidence. And our staff make a difference in the neighbourhoods we serve by volunteering and donating to charitable causes.
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Objective 1: To provide safe and secure homes.
Why?
We need to respond to the changing needs of our customers. This means changing the type of housing we offer and updating our services. Work towards net zero and more energy-efficient homes is a key factor to consider as well as the need to improve the condition and appearance of our properties and their surroundings.
The Social Housing Regulation Act sets out expectations on the safety and wellbeing of social housing residents alongside the new Safety and Quality Standard which our plan is geared up to deliver on including our Damp, Mould and Condensation Action Plan. The Building Safety Act came into force in 2022 and we continue to work hard to ensure that our customers are safe in their homes.
To respond to housing demand, we need to continue to deliver a range of new homes to meet a variety of needs and a choice of tenure including social rent, affordable rent, rent to buy and shared ownership. We are using the results from our stock condition survey as well as feedback from our customers to plan investment. To focus on improving our customers’ homes we are prioritising investment in our stock and considering savings and efficiencies to resource this.
Our priorities to deliver this objective are:
Increasing investment in our homes
This means safe, warm homes for our customers.
Making the best use of our stock
We want to meet the housing needs of our customers, respond to the needs of new customers and to get the best value for money from our stock. We offer a range of tenures: affordable rent housing, rent to buy and shared ownership to help match different needs and through the provision of lowcost homeownership, we make more social housing available to those who need it the most.
Delivering new homes
This will help us to tackle the shortage of affordable homes and help in preventing homelessness. We want to provide good quality sustainable new homes which are more efficient and to support our more vulnerable customers to live independently.
Working towards our carbon reduction targets
We want to provide homes that are energy efficient and cheaper to run for our customers and improved fuel efficiency and reduced bills for customers in our existing homes.
Ensuring the health and safety of our customers
We continue to work to make sure our customers are safe in their homes.
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Objective 2: Supporting our customers and communities.
Why?
At any one time, we provide targeted support to over 2,000 customers. We continue to see the effects of the cost-of-living crisis such as the increase in mental health problems, unemployment, customers who have complex needs and/or have experienced domestic abuse.
Research and conversations with our partners, our Operations Committee and customer groups have helped to shape the role we need to play. We continue to focus on areas where we can have the greatest impact and address the needs of the communities we serve.
Services from other agencies are also under significant pressure and we recognise the need to try to plug some of those gaps where resources allow us to work in partnership and to be key place-shapers. We will contribute to our communities by releasing resources for support services where we can and being agile to take advantage of funding opportunities.
Our priorities to deliver this objective are:
Improving customer experience
- We want to provide a good experience for our customers along with improved access to services.
- We will continue to provide targeted support to our most vulnerable customers.
- We will be providing more choice in ways to communicate with us as well as providing information ready to access through our online channels.
Expanding both opportunities and the number of customers involved through our customer engagement framework
- We want people to have more confidence in us that we will do something with their feedback and to show more evidence of the impact that our involved customers have.
- It is important to us that customers feel greater ownership in their own communities.
- This will help us to strengthen our compliance with the new consumer standards relating to engagement and feedback.
- It will also mean we can support more customers into work.
Using our data and systems to tailor services to better support customers
- We are reducing the number of IT systems we manage so that our customer and property data is in one place and therefore more accurate.
- This improved data accuracy will mean we can make better business decisions.
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Objective 3: To continue to be well-run, responsible and financially secure.
Why?
Strong governance is essential for the Group so that we are assured of being well-managed, financially viable and providing value for money. As part of the regulatory framework, the Regulator of Social Housing carries out regular checks on our governance and viability and our compliance with consumer and other regulatory standards.
Good governance and financial viability give our funders and partners the confidence to work with us and invest in us, which in turn is crucial for us to be able to deliver the services our customers need.
We will be required to report on new Tenant Satisfaction Measures in the coming year which will help customers and the Regulator see how we are performing and where we can improve.
Our priorities to deliver this objective are:
Putting in place additional finance to match business plan requirements
This means we can maintain and improve our existing properties and deliver new homes.
Ensuring value for money in our strategic decision making
- This contributes to us having a financially secure business plan.
- Delivering on our savings targets means we have money available to spend on asset investment and core services.
- We want to make sure we spend our money wisely.
To assess, learn from and strengthen compliance with regulation and legal requirements
This helps us to be a well-run organisation that meets the changing legal and regulatory requirements.
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Objective 4: To promote an inclusive, diverse culture where everyone is accountable and respected.
Why?
Bolton at Home is a good place to work. Our people are empowered to do the right thing for each other and for our customers.
Our aim is for our colleagues to feel motivated and engaged with the purpose and values of Bolton at Home so that they can deliver on our objectives. Equality, diversity and inclusion are an important part of this.
Our priorities to deliver this objective are:
Defining and embedding the target culture for our organisation
This means a workforce that respects each other and our customers and improved diversity in our workforce.
Learning and Development to be accessed by all
We will have professional and personal development plans for all our employees as well as a leadership development programme to make sure our people have the right skills and knowledge.